Music Sound

This electric violin, made by Leo Fender in the late 1950s, has a non-traditional design.

An electric violin is simply a violin with an electronic signal output. The term can refer to an acoustic violin with an electric pickup of some type, but usually refers to a solid-body electric instrument.

Electrically amplified violins have been used in one form or another since the 1920s; jazz and blues artist Stuff Smith is generally credited as being one of the first performers to adapt pickups and amplifiers to violins. A few larger manufacturers attempted to sell electric violins in the 1930s and 1940s; Fender produced a small number of electric violins in the late 1950s but these instruments are very few in number. Larger scale manufacture of electric violins did not happen until the late 1990s.

Acoustic violins may be used with an add-on piezoelectric bridge or body pickup, but often suffer from feedback on stage, in addition to the raw piezo sound. Some magnetic pickups have no feedback but a less sharp sound.

To prevent feedback from the resonances of the hollow body under high amplification on stage, many instruments have a solid body. The timbre (tone color) of an acoustic violin is created directly because of these resonances, however, so depending on how the signal is picked up, an electric piezo violin may have a "rawer," "sharper" sound than an acoustic instrument. This raw sound is often preferred in rock, pop, and some avant-garde genres. Several "semi-hollow" designs exist, containing a sealed but hollow resonating chamber that provides some appoximation of violin resonances while still reducing susceptibility to feedback.

Solid-body electric violins typically have a non-traditional, minimalistic design to keep weight down.

They are often seen as "experimental" instruments, being less established than electric guitar or bass. Hence, there are many variations on the standard design, such as frets, extra strings, machine heads, "baritone" strings that sound an octave lower than normal, sympathetic strings, and more, without even going into the many electronic effects used to shape the raw sound to suit the player's preference.

Acoustic 5-string violins exist, but it is much more common for an electric violin to have 5, 6 or 7 strings than an acoustic instrument. The typical solid body also accommodates the extra tension caused by more strings without stressing the instrument too much. Extra strings are usually a low C string for 5-strings, and a low C and high B or low F for 6, and a low C, F and B-flat (or high B) for 7.

Electric violin signals usually pass through electronic processing, in the same way as an electric guitar, to achieve a desired sound. This could include delay, reverb, chorus, distortion, or other effects.

Contents 1 Pickups 2 Genres 3 Tape-bow violin 4 External links

Pickups

Since it (usually) has metal strings, the sound of the violin can be sensed with either magnetic or piezoelectric pickups. Magnetic pickups generally may have a less sharp sound and less feedback. Magnetic setups similar to those used on electric guitars are rare, but one unusual violin system uses the strings as a linear active pickup element.[1] However, the small body size size and curved string arrangement of a violin can often limit the amount of space available for coil placement, and can sometimes limit the choice of string material a performer uses.

Generally, piezo pickups are more common because of very cheap piezo materials available, as well as the flexibility of string material they allow. They are used to detect physical vibrations, sometimes in or on the body, but more commonly in the bridge. Some piezo setups have a separate pickup (or two, or even four in the case of some Barbera Transducer pickups) embedded in the bridge under each string. A few systems use transducers oriented in various directions to differentiate between bowed and plucked string motion.

Piezo pickups have a very high (capacitive) output impedance, and require a powered preamp for buffering the raw sound (a charge amplifier is best), and to avoid signal loss and excessive noise pickup in the instrument cable. Tube-driven preamps are sometimes favored over solid state due to the differences in distortion; see valve sound. A solid body provides room for this circuitry and a battery, although phantom power can make the battery unnecessary.

Genres

Although the violin is an instrument used extensively in classical music, electric violins are generally employed by classical performers only in the performance of contemporary classical music. The electric violin is more frequently used by non-classical musicians in popular genres such as rock, hip hop, pop, jazz, country, New Age, and experimental music.

Tape-bow violin

Laurie Anderson's tape-bow violin, an electronic instrument developed in 1977, resembles an electric violin but does not have strings. It produces sound by drawing a bow, strung with a length of recorded magnetic tape rather than hair, across a magnetic tape head mounted on the instrument where the bridge would normally be. This anticipates the later technique of "scratching" in rap and hip-hop music, where a vinyl recording is turned back and forth on a turntable.

External links

General

• Bowed Electricity — website linking many electric violin players, makers, equipment, and other resources.
• Digital violin - A survey and review of the violin today, including patents, makers, players, recordings and technique.
• Fiddle and Alternative Strings Forum — forum with large section dedicated to electric bowed instruments, effects and amplification.

Makers

• Barbera Transducer Systems — Multi transducer bridges for violin family instruments.
• Bridge Electric — manufacturers of electric violins, cellos and basses with composite carbon fibre and kevlar bodies; based in the United Kingdom.
• Electric Violin Lutherie — custom built electric violins and violas.
• Jensen Electric Violins — Jensen electric violins, violas, cellos, and basses; for all stringed music styles; based in the United States (Seattle, WA).
• Jordan Electric Violins — Jordan electric violins, cellos, basses and guitars; based in the United States (Concord, CA).
• E. F. Keebler Musical Instruments — Custom-built "tubular" electric violins and violas; based in the United States (Wilmington, DE).
• Ned Steinberger Designs - The developer of the "headless" guitar now focuses exclusively on bowed strings.
• Violectra — "Violectra" electric violins, violas and cellos; based in the United Kingdom.
• Wood Violins — electric violins and cellos designed by renowned electric violinist, Mark Wood. Utilise a unique chest support system, and a traditional Schatten pickup system.
• Yamaha Silent/Electric Strings — Yamaha silent/electric violins, violas, cellos and basses.
• ZETA Music Systems — "ZETA" electric violins, violas, cellos, and basses; based in the United States (Arizona).

Listening

• Bowed Radio — podcast focusing on new music for bowed string instruments (particularly electric ones)